Serendipity strikes again at the Uitsig Manor House!

I have a split personality when it comes to travel. On the one hand I am the consummate itinerary planner, going to great lengths to get tickets into the Royal Enclosure at Ascot or into the Steward's Enclosure to watch the Henley Royal Regatta.


 
 

Oberndorf on Christmas Eve

Able to ferret out the details on exactly how one attends the Christmas Eve concert of Silent Night in the chapel where it first debuted in 1818 in Oberndorf, Austria, thereby creating a family Christmas memory to last a lifetime.

But I also always like to leave time in the itinerary for serendipity. And it has given us back rewards in spades. From something as simple as taking a detour to discover the delights of goat cheese fresh from the goat farms amongst the chateaus of the Loire Valley on our honeymoon. Or magically arriving at the exact time every single guided tour was about to start on the private garden tours during the Charleston Garden Club's Annual Private House and Garden Tour. My friend Teri and I wasted absolutely no time waiting for each tour to begin, thereby allowing us to see every garden we wanted to see on our extensive list. “You’re in luck. The tour is just about to start,” they’d say at every house. “Of course it is,” we’d reply.

our ceramic alpine Snow Village collection with the ...

Serendipity has also rewarded us cosmically three times when all the stars and moons aligned for us on two special solstices in England and in Ireland and an equinox in Mexico. 

Silent Night Chapel music box

But sometimes it is even more fortuitous. Like the time we just happened upon a Renaissance Festival getting underway in Honfleur on the Normandy Coast. That afternoon spent learning how to smith swords and daggers, watching a jester’s pantomime and cheering on the descendants of real knights as they jousted and ran the gauntlet - not to mention eating our food with our hands - kept my seven and nine year old sons (and 30 something year old husband!) entertained far better than any day planned at Euro Disney could have done.

Or the time we stumbled upon a poster announcing the medieval Fete de la Saint Jean going on that evening in the alpine village of Megeve where we were staying one summer.






We were able to see a traditional French midsummer's night bonfire lighting in the village square, another ancient practice to celebrate the summer solstice. Megeve is one of the few villages left in France who maintains this practice which was once common all over the country.

The bonfire was followed by a festival where the young couples of the village dressed in traditional Savoie costume and danced traditional reels on stage. The ritual brought us back in time better than any visit to a museum could have done.

Or the long weekend my son Nick and I spent one summer on Mackinac Island after we had dropped my older son Alex off for his summer robotics camp at Michigan’s Ann Arbor campus. We had started our trip in Chicago where we saw the launch of the Chicago to Mackinac Yacht Race with friends at the Chicago Yacht Club and we made it to the island just in time to see the winners coming in! Totally unplanned, total serendipity.

But the grand-dipity-daddy of them all was the annual San Ranieri Feast in Pisa, Italy. Vince was working in Switzerland at the time and I was taking our sons on a tour around Italy. The boys and I had been to Venice and Rome already and we were on our way to meet Vince on the Amalfi coast for a few days. We were stopping on the train in Pisa for one night only so that I could show them the Tower and I had innocently booked a hotel giving us a "room with a view" of the Arno. 

As we were checking into our hotel, I started to notice out of the corner of my eye hundreds of votive candles being unpacked by the staff and set up on stairs and fireplace mantles in the lobby. “Oh no,” I thought, “are we preparing for one of the famous Italian strikes?” My mind started a panic stream. No dinner tonight? No blow dryer? No electric power to run the trains for our departure tomorrow to Naples? 

I timidly inquired of the desk manager, “Excuse me. Why are there votive candles? Are you expecting a power outage?” “It is for the feast,” he answered. “What feast?”  I pushed on. “Don’t you know?" he answered quite incredulously, "Tonight is the Feast of San Ranieri and tomorrow is the Regatta!” He didn’t say it, but I could see the words “ … you stunad!” were right on the tip of his tongue!

We were rewarded with an unprecedented view from the hotel rooftop of the Leaning Tower of Pisa  lit up with thousands of little votive candles!

And all the window frames on all the windows of all the buildings lining both sides of the Arno as well as the quaysides themselves.








And we were able to watch the midnight fireworks over the Arno from our hotel "room with a view "windows!

Serendipity jackpot!

I cherish these serendipitous moments even more that those events that come off like clockwork exactly as I had meticulously planned. Those are the result of hard work. These are a gift.

And I am happy to say they just keep on coming.

Serendipity struck again as we picked a great day to visit the wine country in the Constantia Valley. The Constantia Food and Wine Festival was in full swing on the grounds of the Constantia Uitsig Winery. We were able to taste all that the Constantia region had to offer all in one place. And to top it off, it was the 20th Anniversary of the Uitsig Manor House, their fabulous restaurant.

vintner and chef

Tables at the restaurant were of course completely sold out. Some of the diners probably planned and made their reservations last year at this time. But the maître d' took pity on us and he set up a little table for two in the dining room nestled close to the entrance to the front lobby. Okay, actually in the front lobby!

We ate and drank their celebration menu which included Vichyssoise with Seared Atlantic Scallops, Mozzarella Caprese, Wild Mushroom Ravioli, Volcanic Orange Sorbet, Seared Yellow Fin Tuna, Springbok Loin, and Rhubarb Creme Brulee, housemade Turkish Delight and Biscotti with wine pairings which were all exquisite!

Viva La Serendipity!!